The miniaturization of electronic devices has increasingly made them more portable and convenient to carry. Wireless devices, such as cell phones, are now carried in pockets and purses, an accessory item as indispensible as wallets and keys. Smartphones, served by portable operating systems and software “Apps”, have taken over substantial functionality from laptop computers, which had mobilized desk-bound computers in an earlier generation of technology. The ultimate goal of the miniaturization process is to produce a multi-functional device, capable of both voice and data communication, which is as wearable as a watch and as user-friendly as the input device called a mouse.
While technological advances have greatly reduced the size of electronic displays, manual data entry still carries demands for finger-sized layouts. Phone keypads reduce the number of keys over the standard QWERTY keyboard, but they inconvenience the user by requiring multiple keystrokes to enter text. Touch screen technology has moved the keyboard onto the display itself, but accuracy with finger control still requires a certain amount of territorial separation. The mechanical keys may be eliminated, but the display area, not the size, is the beneficiary of the displaced space. One method of reducing the input area on the display is to use a stylus to pinpoint the touch zone. Unfortunately, small implements tend to get lost and are almost never at hand when needed. Reducing the keyboard to the size of a wristwatch or other device small to the hand, without taxing the user with keystroke repetition or auxiliary equipment, requires an innovative approach.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,847,818 to Olsen teaches placing mechanical keys on the face of a watch. Such positioning, however, leaves little room for displaying information. Chen, in U.S. Patent Application 2006/0077073, places the mechanical keys around the periphery of the watch casing and on shoulders adjacent to the watch face. This arrangement removes the competition for display space. In both instances, however, the minimal separation distance required for accurate finger placement essentially limits the functionality to a phone keypad. Moreover, pushing buttons with one finger is a slow data entry mode, and, with the device bound to one wrist, there is likely to be some awkwardness in the positioning of the hands, not to mention fatigue over an extended session.
Operating a QWERTY keyboard or other data input method on a small scale requires a multi-functional key with selection capability. Such a multi-functional key would eliminate the one-to-one correspondence of keys and functions and result in a reduced keyboard layout. Hirshberg, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,597,345, discloses a solution by making sliding finger contact in one of several detectable directions on a two-dimensional surface. The problem with a two-dimensional surface, however, is accommodating finger-sized touch zones with sufficient boundary space to enable discrimination of events. This space requirement makes it impossible to shrink the layout to a size comparable to that of a watch face.
There is an unfilled need for QWERTY keyboard and other input functionality on the scale of a wristwatch. Such a device could be the next multi-functional, internet-linked, App-enabled, Smartphone. Such functionality might require, for example, a multiplicity of selection options from a relatively few, narrowly-fenced, touch zones around a watch face periphery. It might also require, to match the convenience and speed of legacy keyboards, a fluidity of keystroke entry from hand positions comfortably arranged for long-term tasking. The instant invention provides novel solutions in both apparatus and method to meet this need.